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NJPW World Tag League Final, December 9th:
Satoshi Kojima, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi defeated Ayato Yoshida, Shota Umino, Togi Makabe & Toa Henare. This was what you always get when you have some fiery young lions facing the veteran army. Lots of heart from the youngsters as they fought from underneath and got some good near falls. The finish saw Yoshida almost pin Kojima with a backslide, then he ran into a Lariat and that was it.
Minoru Suzuki, Takashi Iizuka, Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr defeated Chuckie T, Beretta, Jeff Cobb & Michael Elgin via DQ. The story of the Tag League has been Chuck Taylor going crazy, causing Best Friends to get DQ’d on more than one occasion. Well here Taylor met Suzuki and was quickly thrown into the announce desks. Later in the match, Taylor, proving he has completely lost his mind, traded strikes with Suzuki. It went exactly as you’d expect. Elgin and Smith traded big blows. Cobb rag dolled Archer around. The finish saw Taylor attack everyone with a chair to cause another DQ.
Tomohiro Ishii, SHO & YOH defeated Yoshinobu Kanemaru, El Desperado & Zack Sabre Jr. This was great. Ishii & ZSJ meet at Wrestle Kingdom for the Rev Pro British Heavyweight Championship and they went right at it here. Ishii showed ZSJ that he can chain wrestle in the early going. There was some great stuff between the junior heavyweight tag teams ahead of their title clash, also at WK. SHO stood out in particular. He hit a great series of lariats late in the match. ZSJ & Ishii went at it again late in the match with Ishii proving too quick for ZSJ to catch. Kanemaru hit a diving DDT on Ishii for a close near fall. Things broke down briefly until Ishii blasted Kanemaru with a lariat then pinned him after a Brainbuster.
Tetsuya Naito, BUSHI & Shingo Takagi defeated Chase Owens, Hangman Page & Yujiro Takahashi. We had Naito & Yujiro face off for the first time in quite a while. They have a lot of historic dating back to their time as a tag team almost ten years ago. Page stood out again here and had an incredible exchange with Shingo, which is a singles match that needs to happen. Owens looked impressive too, until he was pinned after a Destino from Naito.
Bad Luck Fale, Jay White & Taiji Ishimori defeated Toru Yano, Kazuchika Okada & KUSHIDA. This again saw the faction lines blurred as KUSHIDA teamed with CHAOS to battle a common enemy, Bullet Club. Okada once again was dying to get his hands on White. Ishimori and KUSHIDA previewed their junior title match. Yano almost caused an upset on Fale, but he was pinned after a Grenade. After the match White once again dropped Okada, while Ishimori hit Bloody Cross on KUSHIDA. Fale went after Yano again, but Togi Makabe ran in to make the save. The idea here is that there is a growing number of guys from different factions joining the fight against Bullet Club.
The Young Bucks, Kenny Omega & Marty Scurll defeated Ryusuke Taguchi, Juice Robinson, Hiroshi Tanahashi & David Finlay. A lot happened in this. We had some comedy from Taguchi, particularly with him and Scurll. Omega & Tanahashi faced off here ahead of their Wrestler Kingdom main event. Omega wrestled in a t-shirt, which to me really lowers the importance of the title he holds. The announcers brought up the point that this was Omega’s first match of the tour, while Tanahashi has been in every show fighting Bullet Club. We had lots of crazy action from The Bucks and more double and triple team than you can possibly recount. Juice went crazy with repeated right hands to all four members of The Elite. Taguchi kicked out of a quadruple super kick. Omega and Tanahashi slugged it out late in the match with Omega dropping Tanahashi with a V-Trigger. Taguchi was pinned after a triple team Indytaker Tombstone.
NEVER Openweight Championship - Number One Contenders Match: Will Ospreay defeated Taichi. It took the sensational Ospreay to get a great match out of Taichi. This was just an incredible performance from Ospreay who had his first match in two months after a rib injury, which he still hasn’t recovered from. Right from the bell, Taichi attacked Ospreay with his mic stand and Ospreays selling throughout the match was at a different level. He sold so well that it became impossible to know if he was selling or was actually hurt. Every time Ospreay was about to make a comeback, the ribs would again become a problem and he would struggle to hit his big moves. Little things like Ospreay grabbing his ribs, leaving his head exposed for a Taichi kick were world class. Ospreay would slowly start hitting his big moves and came closer and closer to scoring a fall. He went for a shooting star press, but Taichi got the knees up. The OsCutter was blocked and Taichi hit a huge Last Ride. There was some fantastic back and forth in the final minute until Ospreay was able to hit The Stormbreaker and become number one contender for the NEVER Openweight Championship.
NEVER Openweight Championship: Kota Ibushi defeated Hirooki Goto. Kota Ibushi is the new NEVER champion. This was a great title match that saw Ibushi win his first title in NJPW in four years. Early on Goto caught Ibushi with a lariat, dropping Ibushi hard on his neck on the apron. The neck became the story of the match as Goto wore down the neck for several minutes. Ibushi started unloading with quick strikes and hit the golden triangle moonsault. There was an incredible double lariat collision in the center of the ring after both guys had built up huge momentum off the ropes. Ibushi started taking control, but his neck was still an issue. Goto went for a code red off the top rope, but Ibushi back flipped out and landed on his feet. The turning point came when Ibushi countered out of a GTR and headbutted Goto in the back of the head. Goto caught him in a double wrist lock, but his headbutt attempt was blocked with a knee. Ibushi then hit a headbutt of his own and the Kamagoye to win the title. After the match, Will Ospreay came out to confirm that he will challenge Ibushi at Wrestle Kingdom on January 4th. That is THE dream match in pro wrestling and good luck to whoever has to follow it.
World Tag League Final: EVIL & SANADA defeated Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa. This tag league was 91 matches long and was a needlessly long tournament that no one really cared about. Everyone and their mother could have predicted that no matter what happened, The Young Bucks would walk out at the end and add themselves to the title match at Wrestle Kingdom. So what were they even fighting for? That’s what this match felt like. Sure, it was a good match, but it was very long and we knew that this was all going to lead to a three way match on January 4th. The crowd really weren’t into this, apart from a few good near falls at the end.
SANADA was worked over early on, and EVIL got the tag. Then EVIL was in the ring for what felt like forever, until he finally got the tag to SANADA. Then things picked up and we had some good stuff. They both hit big double team moves. GOD hit the Magic Killer, only for EVIL to make the save of the match. There was a huge tower of doom spot. Jado was swinging his kendo stick like he was The Sandman in 1995 until he was dropped with a Magic Killer. The finish saw LIJ hit Tonga with a Magic Killer, but Tonga kicked out. He was the finished off after SANADA hit a moonsault. As expected The Bucks showed up and said they didn’t get their title rematch, and added themselves to to make a three way at the Tokyo Dome.
This show is available now at NJPWWorld.com. The NEVER Openweight title matches are worth watching. Kevin Kelly, Excalibur & Rocky Romero provided great English commentary.
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